


Under Her Skin

by Smokeycut



Category: Batman - Fandom
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 07:02:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12227943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smokeycut/pseuds/Smokeycut
Summary: Harper hadn't seen Cassandra since before the League of Shadows attacked. When they see each other again, will they be able to admit how they feel? Or will they stay silent?





	Under Her Skin

Cassandra slipped in through the front door of Harper's apartment, quiet as a mouse. Gotham's skies were pitch black, and she had had one of the most wonderful nights of her life. Bruce, Kate and Christine had taken her to the ballet, and for the first time ever, she watched them from a seat instead of the rafters. For the first time, she was an invited guest, not a ghost who was never meant to be. For the first time, she felt as though she had a family, as though for one night, she had a father and an aunt who loved her. But it had come to an end, and she needed somewhere to crash. Her own apartment would be fine, but she wasn't ready to be alone just yet, and she hadn't seen Harper in a few days.

She wandered over to the fridge and opened it, then rifled through it's contents for leftovers. Harper had made it clear to her a while back that she was always welcome to eat what she liked, so long as she didn't clean them out. She locked onto a plastic container full of au gratin potatoes and snatched it up. She put it in the microwave, grabbed a fork from the silverware drawer, and waited for it to finish heating up. She hit the cancel button when the alarm went off, but the noise was still enough to wake up her friend.

"Cullen? What are you doin' up?" Harper said through a yawn as she entered the room. When she saw Cassandra, she said nothing, but that isn't to say she didn't think anything of it. Her mind processed the image of her best friend shoveling potatoes into her mouth, wearing the black dress she reserved for galas and other high class events Bruce Wayne invited them to. Her friend who she last saw several days ago, who was crying and saying things Harper didn't understand. Her friend who vanished right before ninjas and a rogue military cell attacked the city. 

"Cassie? Oh fuck, thank god you're okay!" Harper ran at Cassandra and hugged her hard, not letting go and only squeezing tighter as time went on. Cassandra hugged Harper back, but she didn't understand why her friend was so upset. Why she was crushing her. Why she was crying into Cassandra's shoulders. 

"I was so worried about you, Cassie. You just vanished, and then everything went to hell, and I didn't hear from you and I haven't heard from Steph and Tim is gone and I..." finally, she let go of Cassandra enough to pull back and look at her. Cassandra could see the tears welling up in Harper's eyes. "I couldn't lose you too."

Cassandra lifted a hand to Harper's cheek and used her thumb to wipe away the falling tears. Normally, Harper's emotions were strong, but this was so much more than that. This was a whirlwind, a storm of feeling in every twitch of her muscles, in every expression. Cassandra found tears stinging her own eyes just through watching Harper. There was a burning in her heart and she saw it in Harper too. She just didn't know how to talk about it. How to say the words.

"What happened?" Harper whispered. Her face was pleading, begging to understand.

"My... mom." Cassandra forced the words out, reaching for each one separately. "Like... my dad. She attacked. Everyone I..." she trailed off, struggling more and more with each passing word. "I stopped it."

Harper didn't need to know what Shiva had told her. She didn't need to know that Cassandra had watched her only family die in a sewer before being dragged off by a man she didn't recognize. She didn't need to know about her breakdown or how badly she had been hurt. Those were things that could be explained another day. There were other things that needed to be said, even if she didn't have the words for it.

Cassandra pressed a hand against Harper's chest. She looked up at Harper and traced around her lips with her other hand's index finger.

"Cass? What are you-"

"I see it. When you... look. I, um, feel it too." Cassandra smiled weakly. She hoped it was enough. Enough to get it across.

"I'm in love with you, Cassie," Harper admitted, her voice low and trembling. It was the first time she had ever confessed her feelings for someone, and Cassandra was the first person she felt this strongly for. That made it so much harder to say. It was why she went months without admitting it, only taking what physical contact she could, stealing glances here and there. It was all she could bear to do. "I didn't want to push that on you. You already have so much to deal with..."

"I'm in love... with _you_ ," Cassandra parroted back with a relieved smile. She hadn't had the words until Harper said them. "Deal together?" She asked, hope ringing clearly in her voice. 

Harper nodded, and she blinked away what tears remained. Cassandra nestled into Harper and sighed into her chest. It was as though a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, and she was finally able to breathe. She was finally able to look at Harper the way she wanted to. 

When they went to bed that night, Harper held Cassandra in her arms, the way she had dreamt of doing so many times before. Cassandra curled up and pulled Harper's flannel tighter around herself as she snuggled with the girl who meant so much to her. They kissed tentatively, neither one sure of themselves but so sure of what they wanted. 

They wanted each other. And they finally had each other.


End file.
